THE POWER 
)  gOFLAN 


ENDLESS 
TELPE 
By 
Henry Hattam SAUNDERSON 


THE CENTURY. CO. 
New York and London 








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THE POWER 
OF AN 
ENDLESS LIFE 





THE POWER 
OF AN 


ENDLESS LIFE 


BY ; 
HENRY HALLAM SAUNDERSON 


THE CENTURY CO. 
New York and London 
1924 





Copyright, 1924, by 
THE CENTURY Co. 


PRINTED IN U. 8. A. 


DEvIcaTEp 
TO 
Tue Memory or 


MY MOTHER 





CHAPTER 

I Tue Discovery or IMMorTALITy . 
II Tue Source or Power. .. . 
III Immorrauity as a Duty 
IV Tue Spirit anp 1ts IMPLEMENT . 

V Tue Lirt or THE Tipe . 


VI 


CONTENTS 


Tue UNFAILING COMRADE . . 


PAGE 


3 
27 
Ay 
65 
81 
95 





THE POWER OF 
AN ENDLESS LIFE 





THE POWER OF 
AN ENDLESS LIFE 


CHAPTER I 
THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 


N imagination go back to a time 
I about nineteen hundred years ago 
when there were thousands of pilgrims 
in Jerusalem. They had assembled 
there for a great festival which was 
held every spring-time. They came 
from many lands, and spoke many lan- 
guages; but they were drawn together 
by the traditions of the land of their 
ancestors. ‘This time there was an in- 
terest, more intense than in other years, 
in the events of the passing days, be- 

3 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


cause of the teaching of Jesus of Naz- 
areth. The people thronged about 
him in the temple and in the city 
streets. 

At the end of the week there were 
pilgrims who began the long journey 
homeward, slow of tread and heavy- 
hearted, telling as they went the story 
of the tragedy on Calvary. Along the 
same highways, at the beginning of a 
new week, went other pilgrims fleet of 
foot and winged with joy. They over- 
took these first pilgrims and told the 
strange tale of the resurrection. After 
that the two stories traveled on to- 
gether: tragedy and triumph, death 
and resurrection. ‘They have traveled 
down through the centuries together. 
Wherever the story of Calvary is told, 
there is told also the story of the gar- 
den in which was the new tomb. 

# 


THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 


The two stories are like two streams 
that have flowed together, and become 
intimately mingled. Yet if we trace 
them back to their beginnings they are 
like two streams flowing from the two 
sides of a mountain,x—one from the 
north with its shadows and its chill, the 
other from the south with its sunlight 
and its warmth. One is the story of 
Friday with its despair, the other the 
story of Sunday with its hope. ‘These 
two days have been studied with the 
utmost care, and every possible item of 
knowledge about them noted. But the 
day which lies between is a strange day, 
which has never been adequately inter- 
preted. 

On that strange day no one was get- 
ting ready for what was to happen the 
next day. It has been said _ that 
the stories of the resurrection were 

5 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


prompted by the hopes of the disciples: © 
but they were in deep despair. Even 
the faithful women who were follow- 
ers of Jesus spent that day in prepar- 
ing their spices to be carried to the 
tomb. They had no expectation of 
throwing them away in the joy of the 
discovery of immortality. Judas had 
ended his own life. Peter and others 
were planning to go back to their fish- 
ing, thinking to take up life where they 
had left it when Jesus called them. 
The priests and Pharisees were con- 
gratulating themselves that they had 
silenced the disturber of their peace by 
taking his life. A detachment of the 
temple police was on guard outside the 
tomb where the body had been hastily 
laid. So many things were being 
done, and none of them a preparation 
for the real event of the new morning! 
6 


THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 


Exactly what happened nobody 
knew at the time, and nobody has been 
able fully to explain since. But very 
suddenly, out of the black despair, 
came the conviction that the spirit of 
Jesus was immortal. By voice and 
appearance that spirit had made itself 
known. Against the barriers of grief 
and doubt that knowledge made its 
way to human hearts. It became a 
great conviction, a radiant certainty. 
To the disciples it carried the convic- 
tion of the immortality of their own 
souls. It transformed for them the 
world in which they lived. 

Sometimes we may understand a 
light, in some measure, by its radiance, 
even when we cannot make an analysis 
of its source. No one can get the 
meaning of the faith of the disciples in 
the immortality of their Master who 

7 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


does not see the light which was shed 
upon the years that followed. That 
faith in immortality became the glow- 
ing heart of their message: the immor- 
tality of Jesus and of all who became 
his disciples. 

The years brought the utmost hard- 
ship, the bitterest persecution, to the 
followers of the new faith; but there 
was a joy which transformed the pain, 
and a radiance which redeemed the 
darkness. It is impressive to see the 
expressions of this paradox, to see the 
light of that changed world in which the 
early Christians lived. The ardor of 
youth, the idealism of devotion to an 
unseen Leader, and the glory of the 
dream of a changed world were ele- 
ments in the spirit of those people. 

Christian art has rendered priceless 
service in the interpretation of the 

8 


THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 


Christian story; but it has also done 
some damage to truth, damage which 
is difficult, if not impossible, to repair. 
How many pictures there are of the 
face of Christ which suggest weakness 
and depression! How few there are 
which express adequately the wondrous 
cheer, courage and faith of that radi- 
ant life! 

Again, how many pictures there are 
of the disciples of Christ which repre- 
sent them as men of great dignity and 
of venerable years! None of the great 
artists has expressed adequately the 
spirit of youth in that company. Jesus 
was only about thirty years old when 
he began to preach. He gathered 
about him a group of eager young men 
ready for an adventure. They were 
not cold, calculating, mature men who 
abandoned promptly their boats and 

9 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


their nets and their remunerative tax- 
gathering when the voice of the Car- 
penter of Nazareth called them to 
share his life in the open. 

The men who were ready to obey the 
message, given in glowing words upon 
the hillside, were not those in whose 
hearts the fires of youth had burned 
low, or to whose eyes the world had 
lost the light of morning. It was not 
out of a drab world that the men came 
who leaped to the challenge, “The time 
cometh that whosoever killeth you will 
think that he doeth God service!’ And 
the challenge was not merely an ap- 
peal to grim determination and stoical 
endurance, for in the same hour Jesus 
spoke the profound truth, “Your sor- 
row shall be turned into joy.” 

We have missed the real meaning of 
that heroic age if we have not learned 

10» 


THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 


two things about it: the suffering in- 
volved in it, and the joy that made its 
matchless radiance. These two things 
seem contradictory, but in reality they 
were inseparable. It was an era of 
high courage, and chivalry, and roman- 
tic daring on the part of the followers 
of Christ. But it was the conviction 
that their Master had risen from the 
dead that gave the disciples that cour- 
age. During his lifetime their confi- 
dence in him was a confidence that he 
would overcome his foes and win a visi- 
ble triumph. When the shadow of 
Calvary darkened that hope, they for- 
sook him, denied him, and despaired of 
his cause. Their courage, even to the 
point of martyrdom, becomes the more 
luminous against that dark background 
of their despair. 

- When the conviction came that their 

11 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


Master lived eternally, and that noth- 
ing on earth could terminate his com- 
radeship with them, they lived a new 
life in a new world: not an easy life in 
a kindly world, but a life of heroism in 
a hostile world. That life and that 
world were illuminated, however, by 
this matchless radiance of faith in the 
immortality of their spirits and in a 
comradeship, with their Master, which 
should be unending. 

These men saw their world through 
the eyes of youth, and felt life with 
the pulse of youth and had the ideal- 
ism which is characteristic of the un- 
spoiled heart untouched by materialism 
and cynicism. Like golden threads 
woven into a great tapestry are those 
passages, in the early Christian writ- 
ings, which tell of the suffering and 
the joy that were in the hearts of those 

12 


THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 


early followers of Christ. James was 
elucidating this paradoxical truth when 
he said, “The trying of your faith 
worketh patience,” and then added, 
“My brethren, count it all joy.” 

Was it in reality all joy to endure 
discipline? Yes, to those who had the 
high-hearted courage to count it all joy. 
This is a magnificent expression of 
their attitude toward life. The writer 
of the book of Hebrews says of Christ, 
“Who for the joy that was set before 
him endured the cross.” Paul, on his 
last journey to Jerusalem, addressed 
the elders of the church of Ephesus. 
He told them of his certainty that 
“bonds and afflictions’ awaited him. 
But connected inseparably with this 
was the note of triumphant joy. He 
says, “But none of these things move 
me, neither count I my life dear unto 

13 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


myself, so that I might finish my 
course with joy and the ministry which 
I have received of the Lord Jesus, to 
testify the gospel of the grace of God.” 

The hardship and the joy were not 
associated by mere accident. ‘These 
men had the utmost conviction that 
they had come into contact with an im- 
mortal world, that they lived an im- 
mortal life, that they were sustained by 
power which came from that world. 
That power was not, to them, imper- 
sonal; for they were perfectly certain 
that it was the working of the person- 
ality, the will, of their divine Master, 
in whose unbroken comradeship they 
lived. In that relationship they found 
a throbbing joy which language could 
not adequately express. But they 
were certain that through their hard- 
ships they were serving the purposes 

14 


THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 


of their Master, were living the life of 
the unseen world and were sustained 
by immortal power. It was an expe- 
rience of sustaining strength, a clear 
consciousness of a deathless comrade- 
ship. 

When the great artists portray the 
disciples of Christ, who became apos- 
tles, as men of dignity and of vener- 
able years, they forget that few if any 
of them lived to venerable years or es- 
caped martyrdom for their Master. 
Their bitter enemies endeavored to cut 
them off without remembrance, to ob- 
literate them and their work so com- 
pletely that the world would forget 
that such men had ever lived. Little 
do we know, indeed, of the material 
facts of their fate. But Christian tra- 
dition tells us that they went with joy 
to torture and to death. Their figures 

15 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


faded from the eyes of living men, but 
the light of their lives is an undying 
radiance. 

If in the words of one or two men we 
caught the note of joy in hardship we 
might say they were ecstatic; but this 
was the major characteristic of a fel- 
lowship which extended to uncounted 
thousands, to many lands, to people of 
various races and languages, and which 
continued for many years. ‘There was 
more than an individual experience in 
this association of hardship with joy, 
for there was a great comradeship 
among these men who had taken the 
cross as the symbol of their triumphant 
faith. Paul, writing to the church in 
Corinth, says, “I am filled with com- 
fort; I am exceeding joyful in all your 
tribulation.” | 7 

From these golden threads, running 

16 


THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 


through the fabric of the New Testa- 
ment, we learn something of the mean- 
ing of that radiant faith of those first 
Christian years. There is a large sig- 
nificance in that cheerful faith, that 
capacity for endurance, that way of 
looking at the world. If we are to 
account for it we must acknowledge 
that a new meaning had come into the 
life of that time. Such illumination 
calls for a search for the source of the 
light itself. There was something 
more than human strength in the en- 
durance of these men, something more 
than human wisdom in their councils. 

The manner of the coming, to the 
first disciples, of the conviction of im- 
mortal life is revealed in the stories of 
the appearances of the risen Christ to 
these disciples. There is much variety 
in those stories. It was a memorable 


17 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


day in the experience of these disciples 
when they beheld the last of these ap- 
pearances. ‘They had learned that life 
is more than the life of earth: that it is 
immortal. They had been taught the 
message of the gospel. They had 
been commanded to carry to the whole 
world the good news of the immortal 
life, to preach the principles of Christ 
to all the nations. The wide world 
and its great need had been pointed 
out to them. The colossal task was set 
before them. 'The message was so ur- 
gent, and the need of the world so 
creat! 

But abruptly they are told by the 
risen Christ that they are to “tarry 
in Jerusalem.” "What, remain silent 
with such a message burning on their 
lips? Wait when there were such im- 
portant reasons for haste? Delay 

18 


THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 


when the whole world was stumbling 
on its way in need of this light? Yes, 
they must wait until they were really 
ready for so great a task. 

If worldly wisdom had been con- 
sulted as to the need of tarrying in 
Jerusalem, they might have received a 
number of answers. They might have 
been told that these fishermen should 
learn more of the ways of good society; 
or that uncultured men should learn 
the rules of logic before they undertook 
the work of instruction; or that there 
should be careful and effective organ- 
ization, with officers and directors and 
committees, if so great a piece of work 
were to be undertaken. Surely, too, 
they ought to get an endowment fund 
and make sure of the financial re- 
sources of the movement. Should not 
these men arrange for letters of credit 

19 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


before going to foreign countries? 
And would it not be necessary to seek 
the support of men of social standing 
and political influence if the existing 
world were to be evangelized? 

But it was not worldly wisdom which 
told them to tarry in Jerusalem, and 
which gave the reason for a breathless 
expectancy: for the command was to 
tarry “till ye be endued with power 
from on high.” That power could use 
the tongues of fishermen, could give 
them utterance, and could communi- 
cate through them the deathless mes- 
sage of the gospel. 

Indeed these men were not to en- 
tangle themselves with the social ways 
and the financial resources and the po- 
litical intrigues of the established life 
of the world. They were to go out 
with a message that had within it the 

20 


THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 


power of a great upheaval. They 
were assured that the existing pattern 
of the world was transitory. They 
were not to love that world and the 
things of that world. ‘They were not 
to be conformed to it; for they were in 
contact with a power, working through 
their inner life, which would transform 
them into the likeness of an eternal 
world. They were to justify what was 
later said about them, “These that have 
turned the world upside down are come 
hither also.” 

When Pentecost had come, and these 
men had received the fulfilment of the 
promise of power, they did go out as 
the bearers of the message which had 
been entrusted to their care. Other 
teachers of the time (notably the 
Stoics) had excellent moral principles 
to impart; but these men had the story 

21 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


of a life. And more than that: it was 
an endless life. Still more it was not 
simply the narrative of a life which had 
proved itself deathless: they went out 
to show men the power of an endless 
life. 

These men had come close to the 
heart of reality. They had made the 
discovery that it is spirit that creates 
and recreates the world; and that spirit 
outlasts the things which it creates. 
They were assured that the visible is 
always dependent on the invisible. To 
gain the transitory things and to lose 
the eternal would be folly indeed. It 
is a great word which Paul speaks 10 
the disciples in Corinth, “For the 
fashion of this world passeth away.” 

In writing to Rome he addressed 
men who were under an enormous pres- 
sure of tradition and custom which 

22 


THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 


tended toward worldly ways. It was 
to these men in the world’s capital that 
he wrote, “Be not conformed to this 
world, but be ye transformed by the 
renewing of your minds.” That spir- 
itual power with which they were in 
contact would work through their spir- 
its for the transformation of their visi- 
ble life, and through that transforma- 
tion would be revealed “the perfect will 
of God.” They would not attach 
themselves to transitory things; they 
would not build on foundations al- 
ready crumbling. ‘They had come to 
the heart of reality, and established in- 
dissoluble bonds with that which is 
deathless. 

Their message to the world was, 
then, a message that communicated 
that same power. Again we find a 
glowing expression of this faith when 

23 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


Paul says, “When I came to you, I 
came not with excellency of speech or 
of wisdom ...and my speech and 
my preaching was not with enticing 
words of man’s wisdom but in demon- 
stration of the spirit and of power.” 
And in elucidating this great truth he 
adds, “Not in the words which man’s 
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy 
Ghost teacheth.” 

Such faith opens the door of a new 
world. Instead of spiritual things be- 
ing vague and shadowy, and material 
things substantial, the reverse was 
true; for they had a most vivid sense of 
the reality of the unseen while material 
things were, to their vision, vanishing 
like mists dissolved by the sun of a 
new and glowing day. This gives 
great significance to the saying, “Ye 
took joyfully the spoiling of your pos- 

24 


THE DISCOVERY OF IMMORTALITY 


sessions, knowing that ye have for 
yourselves a better possession and an 
abiding one.” This is not only a joy 
which sheds a glory upon hardship but 
a sense of the reality of eternal power 
in a transitory world. } 

When a company of young men had 
seen the immortal spirit of their risen 
Master, when they had passed through 
the experience of Pentecost, and when 
they had gained this vivid sense of the 
presence of the eternal world, they 
were ready to preach a gospel of power. 
It was a gospel which was to be tri- 
umphant over the material world. 
That company of men had in it the 
spirit of youth, a spirit which was se- 
cure against the deadly cynicism of 
that age. High-hearted, with daunt- 
less courage, with indomitable will, 
they went out to bear their message. 

25 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


What mattered any material thing in 
comparison with that message? Suf- 
fering, hardship, toil and journeying— 
yes, even martyrdom—were of the ma- 
terial world, and the winds of the Eter- 
nal were blowing away the dust of that 
world. 

With differing personalities, with 
varying forms of expression, the hope 
which they conveyed to men was, 
“That ye may know Christ and the 
power of his resurrection.” ‘They won 
new disciples for their unseen Master, 
and wove the fabric of a fellowship 
which included men of all the nations. 
When those nations crumbled, this fel- 
lowship was destined to endure. ‘These 
followers of Christ had the assurance 
that they were sustained by the power 
of an endless life. 


26 


CHAPTER II 


THE SOURCE OF POWER 


HEN, at dawn, one is looking 

\ \ westward, and sees the hill- 
tops touched with gold, and then the 
advancing illumination which glorifies 
trees and shrubs and finally floods the 
fields, he knows that the sun has risen 
over the eastern horizon. He is as 
sure of this as if he directed his gaze 
toward the sun itself. When one looks 
at the landscape of the first Christian 
centuries and sees the radiance upon 
them, he knows that there was a source 
of illumination. ‘To estimate the in- 
fluence of the coming of Jesus into the 
world one must do several things: one 


27 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


of them being to see the light upon the 
rugged landscape of those years. 

The world situation at that time was 
not prophetic of a revival of religion. 
There were three major influences in 
that era: Rome, with its law, its organ- 
ization and its military dominance; 
Greece, with its philosophy, its art and 
its expressive language, though Greece 
was under the political power of Rome; 
and the tradition of Israel, represented 
in two little provinces, ruled by Rome, 
and in a scattered people who still kept 
the memories of their fatherland. 

These three had lost their youth. 
Rome was materialistic, and the forces 
were at work which would bring about 
her dissolution and destruction. The 
vigor of Greece had waned, though 
there was still the desire to teach lan- 
guage and literature and a method of 

28 


THE SOURCE OF POWER 


living. The religion of the Jews, their 
supreme achievement, had become 
formal. Not long before the time of 
Jesus the high priest deemed it advis- 
able to construct, in the temple in 
Jerusalem, a screen, a net, that he 
might not be in danger of attack dur- 
ing the ceremonies. 

Rome was watchful for any signs of 
spontaneous movement in any part of 
the empire, which might tend toward 
revolt. Hence the Christian move- 
ment was alarming, and the force of 
the empire was set against it. This 
new faith was persecuted by the author- 
ities of the Jewish religion, but that 
was a minor matter compared with the 
persecutions by the Roman military 
power. 

Judging the worldly forces of the 
times, one would not expect a great 

29 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


spiritual movement to arise; and when 
Christianity did arise one would pre- 
dict that it would be checked and then 
destroyed. When the time came that 
Christians used the catacombs, under- 
ground tombs, as places of worship, it 
would seem as if their plight was piti- 
able in the extreme, that they were re- 
duced to desperate straits and that 
their situation was utterly hopeless. 
Overhead in the sunlight rolled the 
chariots of the empire, with all the evi- 
dence of permanent and dominant 
power. It would seem as if that power 
possessed the future. Who would 
predict that those few hymn-singing 
people in the darkness and the flicker- 
ing shadows of the catacombs pos- 
sessed a power which would survive 
the empire? Yet those chariots were 
really rumbling on their way to ruin, 
30 


THE SOURCE OF POWER 


and the spiritual power of a new faith 
was destined to rise above the ruin. 

At one time a Roman emperor was 
musing. He recalled that a Roman 
governor had sentenced Jesus to cruci- 
fixion, and that the power of Rome had 
done its utmost to obliterate the faith 
of Jesus as it spread throughout the 
empire. He saw the growing power 
of that faith. He saw the processes of 
disintegration in his own empire, proc- 
esses which would bring its ruin, for 
the empire had no spiritual bonds to 
hold it together. And as he mused, 
this Roman emperor exclaimed, “O 
Nazarene, thou hast conquered.” 

As one, looking westward, knows 
that the sun has risen because he sees 
the illumination of the landscape, so 
one must recognize that a new spirit- 
ual power had come abruptly into the 

31 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


life of that time, for its effects are evi- 
dent. What was it that Jesus brought 
into the world, which was to rise 
above the ruins of the empire? The 
time was approaching when Jerusalem 
would be destroyed and the people of 
Judea dispersed; but a spiritual power, 
born within Judea, would survive. 
Greek was to become a dead _ lan- 
guage, though at the time of Jesus 
it was the principal international 
tongue. Jesus spoke in Aramaic, a 
language known to comparatively few, 
and despised by many, in the world of 
his time. But his faith used Greek as 
an implement and did its work among 
the nations. The Christian faith 
reached out, in the ardor of its mis- 
sionary zeal, even to the barbaric tribes 
of the north; and when those tribes 
overran Rome they had respect for the 
32 


THE SOURCE OF POWER 


institutions of the religion of Jesus. 
Upon the pattern of the organization 
of the empire, a new spiritual organ- 
ization was formed, rising out of the 
ruins. 

Not the influence of Judaism in dis- 
persion; nor the beauty of the Greek 
language, fading from the minds of 
living men; nor the waning power of 
Roman law and armies was to domi- 
nate the new age. ‘These things were 
implements in the hands of a new spir- 
itual power,—implements to be used, 
and, in time, to be cast aside when they 
were outworn. That new spiritual 
power was the faith of Jesus Christ. 

What, then, did he bring into the 
world? What is the essential thing in 
his gospel? What did he really add to 
the life of humanity? Having looked 
westward, at the dawn of that new day, 

33 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


and observed the radiance upon the 
rugged landscape of the world, it is 
well to turn and look eastward and 
seek a better understanding of the 
source of that illumination. 

Turning to the story contained 
within the gospels, several answers 
have been offered as to what is the first 
essential of that story. One is that 
Jesus was the supreme teacher of the 
ages; that the Sermon on the Mount 
contains the highest ethics which the 
world has known; that the essential 
thing is that Jesus offered men a new 
plan for their living. 

The answer is important, but is it 
sufficient? ‘True, the teachings of Je- 
sus are the wisest in the world. He 
taught men how to live. He gave 
matchless precepts for the conduct of 
the individual. He also showed the in- 

34 


THE SOURCE OF POWER 


dividual how to relate himself to so- 
ciety, so that he may become a useful 
and loyal citizen in his community. 
The kind of individual which Jesus 
taught that a man should be makes a 
good neighbor. Men who live after 
his plan of life find it easy to live to- 
gether. 'The plan contained within the 
teaching of Jesus is a good plan for the 
personal life and for the social order. 

The teaching of Jesus applies also to 
the contacts of the nations. If com- 
munities adopt his plan, it is easy for 
them to adjust their relationships with 
other communities; and nations could 
establish a wholesome life for the 
world. After nineteen hundred years 
the possibilities of that teaching are not 
exhausted; they have not been “tried 
and found wanting.” Men turn to that 
teaching for guidance in time of doubt, 

35 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


for the clarifying of conscience, for 
wisdom when civic affairs are baffling, 
for the reinforcement of their wills. 
Very wistfully men turn to that teach- 
ing, hoping for abiding peace among 
the nations of the world. 

Wise and comprehensive as is the 
plan of life which Jesus taught, we still 
ask, Is that the heart of his gospel? 
Was it of the ethics of the Sermon on 
the Mount that the Roman emperor 
spoke when he said, “O Nazarene, thou 
hast conquered”? Was it this better 
plan of living, this deeper wisdom in 
behavior, which shattered old king- 
doms and created new ones? Evi- 
dently there was something more in the 
message of the gospel. 

A second answer that is given, to the 
question of what Jesus gave the world, 
is that he differs from other teachers in 

36 


THE SOURCE OF POWER 


his emphasis upon the inner life, that 
he exalts purpose to its full moral sig- 
nificance. He offered more than rules 
of conduct, rules for men and commun- 
ities and nations: for he showed men 
what their motives should be. The 
older law judged men by their visible 
deeds, by what could be seen, in their 
conduct, by the eyes of men. Jesus 
emphasized the spirit of the ancient 
declaration, “The Lord judgeth not as 
man judgeth; for man looketh upon 
the outward appearance, but the Lord 
looketh upon the heart.” 

Jesus may be compared with Moses 
as a law-giver, and similarities and con- 
trasts may be found. The mountain 
of the ten commandments may be com- 
pared with the mountain where Jesus 
taught the Sermon on the Mount. 
Jesus himself makes these contrasts: 

37 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


“Ye have heard that it hath been said 
. . . but I say unto you.” He shows 
that righteousness is of the heart, that 
obedience is of the will, and he warns 
men of the origin of sin within them- 
selves. A man’s obedience to the older 
law could be known by those who 
watched his physical behavior. But if 
we understand the teaching of Jesus 
we know that a man can sit down on a 
chair, fold his hands, and violate every 
one of the ten commandments. Not 
merely other rules for outer behavior, 
but a new valuation of motives, of the 
inner impulses, of the action of the 
will, distinguish the teaching of Jesus. 

Is this answer, however valuable it 
is, sufficient however to account for the 
effects of the Christian faith? Was it 
an emphasis on will which sent the 
apostles out to die for their faith? 

38 


\ 


THE SOURCE OF POWER 


Was it for this that men went cheer- 
fully to the stake and to the lions? 
Very evidently there was something 
more in the gospel message. 

A third answer goes one step fur- 
ther. Jesus did not merely teach ab- 
stract principles of living, even for the 
inner life: he gave men a pattern in 
his own being, in his own living. The 
apostles, conveying the teaching of Je- 
sus, did not have to give merely forms 
of words and statements of principles; 
for they could picture their Master as 
they had seen him, and could interpret 
his motives expressed in his own life. 

Men expect from a religious teacher 
that he shall exemplify his teaching in 
his own living. An engineer may do 
his work on paper, and design bridges 
and project tunnels without ever see- 
ing the valleys bridged or the moun- 

39 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


tains bored. He may use his imagina- 
tion, draw his plans, use measurements 
made by his surveyors, and give in- 
structions to those who do the work. 
All this he may do within the four 
walls of a room without seeing the 
work done or lifting a finger in the 
labor. 

A man may bear, and may deserve, 
the name of physician though his medi- 
cal work is entirely within the class- 
room. He may instruct other men in 
the art of healing without himself ever 
seeing a patient or writing a prescrip- 
tion. He may gather needed informa- 
tion, give it orderly arrangement, and 
impart it to others while he does not 
come into contact with the sick, even 
those who, in time, owe their lives to 
his wisdom. 

Not so with the teacher of religion: 

40 


THE SOURCE OF POWER 





it is expected of him that he will not be 
dissociated from the life he is teaching. 
As the teacher of athletics should be an 
athlete, so the teacher of morals should 
be righteous. The teacher of religion 
should set an example before the eyes 
of those whom he instructs. He should 
be that which he admonishes other 
men to be. His whole personality is 
involved in his instruction. And, 
judged by this standard, Jesus is the 
supreme teacher of the race. If one 
could understand the life he lived 
among men, and reproduce his pur- 
poses, then indeed would the life of the 
disciple be guided by the life of the 
Master. 

But again, is this a sufficient answer 
to the question, What was the heart of 
the gospel message? Was the exam- 
ple which Jesus set before the eyes of 

41 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


men, for their living, the cause of the 
radiance of the years that followed his 
life? Was it this that rose in triumph 
over the red ruin of the greatest em- 
pire of the ancient world? 

We approach the real answer to our 
question when we discover the power 
which was manifested in the life of 
Jesus, and learn the source of that 
power. This discovery leads to the 
real secret of that transformation of 
life, and that radiance which illumi- 
nated the world. 

Naturally we find little said, in the 
gospels, about what Jesus did in soli- 
tude. The records are exceedingly 
brief, but they are infinitely precious. 
The truth back of those records is of 
supreme importance. 

Imagine people out upon the hillside 
listening to the Master. They forget 

42 


THE SOURCE OF POWER 


all about the passing of time. They 
listen to the music of his voice, are 
moved by the ardor of his words, and 
they watch his animated countenance. 
“Never man spake like this man.” ‘The 
day is waning, and evening approaches. 
Long shadows fall across the valleys. 
The west is crimson and gold. The 
hills become purple. The valleys fill 
with silvery flowing mists. Still the 
people listen, until the message ceases 
and they are dismissed to seek a lodging 
for the night. 

Early next morning some of these 
people, eager to hear the Master again, 
rise and seek for him. They go to the 
market-place thinking he may be 
among the early traders; but he is not 
there. Then they go to the synagogue 
hoping to find him reading or teaching; 
but he is not to be found. They search 

43 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


up and down the narrow streets of the 
village, but no one has seen him. 
Then they boldly go to the house where 
they know Jesus was a guest, and they 
ask for him. ‘The host replies that he 
knows nothing of where his guest has 
gone. All he knows is that some time 
in the darkness of the night he heard 
a quiet foot-fall, and heard the door 
open and close softly; but in the morn- 
ing the guest chamber was empty. 

The inquirers find a shepherd who 
has been out all night on the hills with 
his flock, and they ask him if he has 
seen the Master. He replies that all 
he knows is that he saw a tall, strong, 
stalwart figure against the light of the. 
stars, taking the upward path to the 
heights. 

The gospel gives us the simple state- 
ment that “he rose a great while be- 

44 


THE SOURCE OF POWER 


fore day, and departed into the moun- 
tain to pray.” Brief and simple as are 
these records, we learn that Jesus 
Christ lived in communion with the 
eternal power of God. At the glow- 
ing heart of his living was this habit of 
going into solitude for prayer, and for 
the renewal of power. When he re- 
turned from those times of solitude, his 
utterance was like pure flame, because 
of the warmth and the light of his faith 
in the sustaining power of God. His 
hands communicated peace and life and 
power to those who were distressed. 

The all-important thing in the gos- 
pel was a new discovery of divine 
power, available for the lives of men. 
That power redeemed from sin, healed 
disease, and brought light, courage, 
hope and joy to human lives. 

In the course of events it brought the 

45 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


conviction of immortality. It sent 
men out with the faith that they were 
in contact with the everlasting, and 
that nothing which the material world 
could do could separate them from the 
divine comradeship. Nations might 
fall, but that faith would outlive all 
other things. “The things which are 
seen are temporal, but the things which 
are not seen are eternal.” 


46 


CHAPTER III 
IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 


HE habit of Jesus of going into 

solitude was central in his whole 
plan of life, his faith, his hope for the 
world. ‘To pray in the wilderness was 
not a new thing; but the use that Jesus 
made of: this did make a new revelation 
of divine power. The world was al- 
ready familiar with the “holy men” 
who made the wilderness their habita- 
tion, emerging into human society only 
when driven by their physical necessi- 
ties. ‘These men solved the problems 
of human society by renouncing that 
society. Their answer to the needs of 
the world was to run away from the 


47 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


world. They sought the salvation of 
their own souls by detaching them- 
selves from humanity. And the in- 
evitable result was that, for them, the 
meaning of life and religion faded out. 

The use which Jesus made of soli- 
tude is expressed with the utmost clar- 
ity in his phrase, “For their sakes 1 
sanctify myself.” His hours in the 
wilderness were for the renewal of 
power which could be used for the help 
of humanity. On the Mountain of 
Transfiguration the common thought 
of the time was expressed in the words 
of the disciple who proposed building 
habitations there, since the experience 
was so delightful, the privilege so great. 
The chosen few might revel in their ec- 
stasy. But Jesus already saw the lit- 
tle lad down on the plain, distressed 
beyond endurance, and needing the re- 

48 


IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 


——- 


lief which spiritual power could bring. 
His impulse was not to linger in the 
delights of the exalted experience but 
to hasten to the help of human life. 
To him the transfiguration was the 
coming of a new access of power to be 
used in service. 

It is a profound truth of personality 
that we do not get power which we do 
not use. ‘This is true physically, men- 
tally and spiritually. Life will not use 
us as stagnant reservoirs of power, but 
as flowing streams. Whoever follows 
the method of Jesus in going into the 
wilderness will learn nothing from it 
unless he follow also the way of Jesus 
in. self-forgetting service. 

Jesus sometimes opened to his dis- 
ciples the door into this inmost secret 
of his life. Again, little of this is re- 
corded in the gospels. But he said, 
49 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


“Come ye yourselves apart into a des- 
ert place and rest a while.” And at 
another time the disciples said to him, 
“Master, teach us to pray.” He 
taught them the uses of solitude, of 
what may be learned and may be 
gained, beside the sea, and in the moun- 
tains, and along the paths of the desert. 
It was not as an invitation to idleness, 
but for the discovery of more than hu- 
man power, that he said, “Come unto 
me all ye that labour and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest.” 

But there were people who replied 
that they were so tied by daily and 
hourly duty, so entangled with the 
cares of house and shop, that they 
could not go into the wilderness. And 
Jesus showed them how to find in their 
own homes the same. solitude: for he 
said, “Thou, when thou prayest, enter 

50 


IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 


into thine inner chamber, and having 
shut thy door, pray to thy Father who 
is in secret.” Not the place, and not 
the method, but the inmost secret of 
the soul was most significant. ‘That 
direct relationship of the inner spirit to 
the Eternal Spirit meant the coming 
of sustaining strength to the faithful 
disciple. 

This leads us to the confidence that 
the immortal spirit of man establishes 
a conscious relationship with the Ever- 
lasting, and derives joy and peace and 
sustaining strength from that relation- 
ship. 

From that relationship with the 
Everlasting, Jesus derived his inter- 
pretation of the world and of life. To 
him light was not an envelope put 
around a dark world; but a radiance 
from the very heart of reality. He 

51 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


was not speaking of exotic blooms but 
of the common flowers of the field 
when he said, “Solomon in all his glory 
was not arrayed like one of these.” 
Not of the children of the privileged 
few, but of the little urchins playing in 
the street, he spoke when he said, “Of 
such is the Kingdom of God.” 

The kind of world he lived in is re- 
vealed in these expressions of the dis- 
covery of divine glory. He had “eyes 
to see” and his land has become the 
“holy land” for the generations since 
his time. The vision of childhood and 
the heart of youth are necessary in 
those who would interpret fully the 
kind of world in which Jesus lived and 
which he revealed to those about him. 

Older forms of faith, held by older 
men, enforced the restrictions of the 
moral law; while Jesus showed a spirit- 

52 


IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 


ual power which brought a great eman- 
cipation in a life of loyalty instead 
of a life of rules. Some interpreta- 
tions of Christianity dwell upon the 
physical meagerness of the life of its 
founder, upon the simplicity of his 
birthplace, a stable, upon the narrow- 
ness of the horizons of the little coun- 
try where he lived, and upon the scanty 
space of the borrowed tomb in which 
his body was laid. But he contrasts 
himself even with John the Baptist, the 
ascetic, and emphasizes his own joy in 
living. When asked why the young 
men who were his comrades in his trav- 
els did not keep the customary fasts, 
he replied that their comradeship with 
him was like that of the young men at 
a wedding, with the bridegroom. His 
reply means this, “Would you fast at a 
wedding feast?” 
53 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


No wonder the stories of his birth 
put more emphasis upon the song from 
the heavens than upon the narrowness 
of the manger; that the wondering 
shepherds are pictured, while there is 
no mention of the dull people of the 
town, who neither saw nor heard any- 
thing out of the common. And the 
story of the life of Jesus does not lead 
merely to a narrow niche in a rock, 
with a great stone to shut out the light. 
It leads to a garden in the full glory of 
the spring-time, and to human hearts 
which have discovered the immortality 
of the spirit. 

The joyousness of the comradeship 
of the disciples with Jesus led them to 
believe that their earthly life together 
would be continued, that Jesus would 
not be crucified. And when that trag- 

54 


IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 


edy had come, they were in utter be- 
wilderment. 

When the disciples received the first 
intimation that the immortal spirit of 
Jesus had made itself known, they 
were not credulous. THis crucifixion 
had brought despair, the feeling that 
their adventure with him was done. 
When Peter, in a brief phrase, de- 
clared his determination to go back to 
his former occupation of fisherman, he 
received. an immediate response from 
others, who said, “We also go with 
thee.” They thought they could take 
up life again where they had left it off, 
when Jesus had called them. 

It is easy to imagine these fishermen 
making the needed repairs to their old 
boat, and shaking the dust from the 
nets which had been hanging idle. 

55 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


Not so easy is it to imagine their grad- 
ual discovery of how completely their 
world had changed since last they cast 
their nets into the sea. 

It was spring-time, and, as they 
looked up to the hillsides, that neigh- 
bor scattering seed was not just an or- 
dinary man: he had become “the 
sower” who “went forth to sow” and 
whose living seed was like the truth of 
the Kingdom of God. The birds fly- 
ing over the lakes were not common, 
almost worthless, little creatures which 
were sold two-for-a-farthing in the vil- 
lage market: they were care-free recip- 
ients of the unfailing care of God. 
The flowers on the shore, and the chil- 
dren playing in the sand, were not the 
unimportant things they had once 
been: for through them the divine glory 
was shining. Even the solitude of the 

56 


IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 


highest hills upon the horizon held 
memories of sacred hours of prayer 
with the Master. The boat itself re- 
minded them of the time they were 
crossing the lake, and they had been in 
panic because of the storm, and he had 
spoken the words, “Peace, be still.” 

Even the waters seemed to speak his 
memories, and the winds to repeat his 
words. The grass of the field, the 
sands upon the shore, every least thing 
had been changed by his interpretation 
of life and of the world, by the fa‘th, 
learned of him, in the divine glory that 
shines through all that is most common. 
To break bread together and to share 
their cup brought back glowing mem- 
ories of the infinitely precious hours 
in the upper room. 

No, these men could not take up life 
again just where they had left it when 

57 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


they were called to become fishers of 
men. ‘These discoveries prepared their 
minds for the new call to take up that 
work. ‘They were making the discov- 
ery of a new comradeship with their 
Master, transcending his physical pres- 
ence. ‘They were turning their hearts 
to a new loyalty to the unseen Com- 
rade. 

Then came that wondrous hour of 
revelation. All night long upon the 
restless waters these men had toiled. 
The oars grew heavier, the nets more 
cumbersome, as the hours dragged 
their weary length. The morning 
stars appeared, and rose higher; while 
the constellations, which they had 
watched, sank toward the west, and be- 
gan to pale as the east grew gray, then 
luminous. Deep shadows filled the 
valleys among the hills, and filmy 

58 


IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 


mists floated over the face of the sea. 
The morning twilight advanced, and 
the east began to show color, and the 
stars were gone. ‘The shadows among 
the hills became purple, and the wa- 
ters, to the eastward, reflected the 
crimson of the sky, while the mists be- 
came opalescent. They had learned 
to see beauty and to love it in the won- . 
drous comradeship of him who had 
“eyes to see.” They, too, had learned 
to see. 

Then suddenly they forgot their 
weariness, and the weight of the oars, 
and the long hours of toil through the 
night. On the shore stood a figure, 
and across the water came a voice, and 
they knew the immortal spirit of their 
Master. Again came the call to duty, 
again the demand for service in the 
face of hardship. Of that demand we 

59 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


read, “Now this he spake, signifying 
by what manner of death he should 
glorify God.” 

This faith in the immortality of the 
spirit of their Master did not come eas- 
ily. The disciples were not over- 
credulous. And that faith came to 
them with the demand for martyrdom. 
It was no easy faith. It did not offer 
a way of escape from the monotony of 
the material world; it called them to 
face the worst that the world could in- 
flict. It came with a demand for en- 
durance, for chivalry, for loyalty, for 
courage. 

It was no easy journey for these 
Galilean fishermen to retrace their 
steps to Jerusalem. ‘The men who had 
recently put their Master to death 
were in authority there, and were de- 
termined to rid the world of this new 

60 


IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 


faith. In Jerusalem was the temple, 
the home of the formalism against 
which their Master had protested, but 
a formalism so strongly intrenched that 
Jesus had exclaimed, “O Jerusalem, Je- 
rusalem, thou that killest the prophets, 
and stonest them that are sent unto 
thee.’ But into that temple went 
these fishermen to preach, even as he 
had preached in the last days he was 
permitted to live. 

It would be unfair to the truth to 
minimize the moral courage which had 
come to these disciples, not merely the 
kind of courage that can do one heroic 
act, or that enables a man to fling his 
life away in one glorious moment of 
self-forgetfulness; but the courage 
that could undertake years of toil and 
hardship, could face persecution, and 
could unite joy with the anticipation 

61 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


of martyrdom. It could be no slight 
thing which gave them that matchless 
heroism. It was nothing less than an 
experience, convincing them against all 
their doubts and despondency, that 
their Master lived, had revealed him- 
self to them, and had commanded them 
to go out and preach his gospel. 
There is a kind of rationalism which 
reads the gospels cautiously, accepts 
their ethical teaching with mild enthu- 
siasm, passes over the record of any- 
thing above the drab and the dust of 
the surface of the material world, and 
puzzles over the motives which are de- 
rived from the Unseen. It reads the 
story of the last days of Jesus, until the 
twilight of the day of crucifixion. 
Then it closes the book. It does not 
read, nor does it attempt to interpret, 
the stories of a new life which conquers 
62 


IMMORTALITY AS A DUTY 


death. It does not explain how the 
cross of shame became the symbol of 
glorious victory. It does not under- 
stand the message which the apostles 
carried to the world. After the twi- 
light following the crucifixion it leaves 
the book closed. But also it cannot 
account for what happened in the 
Greek and Roman world in the years 
immediately following. It cannot ex- 
plain the changes in the map of the 
ancient world. It closes its eyes to a 
radiance which shone upon those years. 
It leaves closed a great literature which 
was created at that time. 

But the simple truth is that those 
years, out of which were born the books 
of our New Testament, were glorified 
by a spiritual power which rationalism 
cannot explain. Whoever seeks to ex- 
plain the world by drawing geometric 

63 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


figures in the dust, or by putting truth 
merely into the lines of logic, or by 
measuring the motives of men by what 
is commercially profitable, misses the 
real meaning of the world and the 
glory of life. 


64 


CHAPTER IV 
THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 


HE most important message of 
ai the early apostles of the Chris- 
tian faith, the truth upon which they 
laid the greatest emphasis, was the im- 
mortality of the spirit of Jesus Christ. 
This they presented principally in the 
form of narrative. The reappearance 
of that spirit to their vision gave them 
a great conviction. The story of that 
reappearance went out as a piece of 
news. Men did not explain the news: 
they related it, and drew their moral 
and spiritual conclusions from it. In- 
stead of rationalizing that piece of 
news, Paul frankly says, “Behold I 

65 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


show you a mystery.” Not a philoso- 
phy of immortal life, but a narrative, 
was the glowing heart of the message 
of the apostles. 

The narrative carried conviction not 
because of a logical argument but be- 
cause of its moral incentive and its 
spiritual power. If the story had gone 
out that Judas, after hanging himself, 
had reappeared among his fellows, the 
moral sensibilities of people would 
have stood in the way of belief. But 
when the disciples became convinced 
of the reality of their experiences of 
seeing the spirit of Christ, and related 
those experiences to people who had 
known the life of the Master, there was 
a moral presumption in favor of belief. 
People knew by the deepest instincts 
of their hearts that the qualities they 
had seen in him ought to be immortal. 

66 


THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 


Whether put into definite phrase, or 
cherished as a glowing hope, men felt 
that what deserves to live is indeed 
deathless. 'The human heart has an 
instinctive faith that integrity is im- 
mortal, that love is eternal, that truth 
is imperishable. 

The gospel came to men not prima- 
rily as a new logic but as a new discov- 
ery of power. If one reads the gos- 
pel narratives, watching for the word 
“power,” or its equivalents, he will be 
impressed by the truth that the teach- 
ing of Jesus Christ was dynamic rather 
than argumentative. A typical phrase 
is, “His word was with power.” Car- 
rying the same inquiry into reading 
the other books of the New Testament 
will strongly confirm the conviction 
that the new discovery of power was 
central in the gospel message. 

67 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


It brought a new sense of the value 
of personality, a conviction of its 
deathless quality. The greatest moral 
incentive that ever came into the world 
came with the presence of the spirit of 
Christ as he joined the company of his 
disciples, and brought to them the con- 
viction that he was immortal. 

Two things these men came to be- 
lieve ardently. One was that even 
when no longer visible, the spirit of 
Jesus Christ maintained a comradeship 
with them. ‘The other was that he be- 
stowed upon them immortality even as 
he himself possessed it. And in their 
minds these two things were indissolu- 
bly linked. Conceivably they might 
have separated the two: they might 
have believed in the living spirit of 
Christ walking with them without hav- 
ing a confidence in their own immortal- 

68 


THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 


ity; or they might have believed that 
the spirit of Christ lived in a detached 
world, and that they themselves would 
live eternally. But they did, in real- 
ity, believe that Christ lived in constant 
companionship with them, a source of 
power for every need, and the giver of 
immortal life to them. 

Thus the eternal life was to thém a 
present reality. It was not something 
merely to be added at the far end of 
this life; not an appendix to the vol- 
ume that tells the tale of this world. 
Instead of looking afar for the im- 
mortal life, and seeing it across the 
chasm of death, they found it as a qual- 
ity in their present life. They discov- 
ered that there was a power working 
in and through them which gave the 
promise of imperishable life. It is in 
the present tense that the admonition 

69 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


was written, “If ye then be risen with 
Christ, seek those things that are 
above.” ‘This immortal life, a present 
reality, had a right to demand all their 
loyalty and their entire life. 

After the opportunity for wide ob- 
servation and long experience, the 
apostle John gave the results which 
were evident in clean living which 
justified the faith in immortality. He 
wrote, “Every one that hath this hope 
in him purifieth himself.” 

The moral consequences of the im- 
mortal hope were evident not only in 
the lives of individuals, but in the fel- 
lowship of a new social order. ‘The 
consciousness of having an unseen 
Comrade did not alienate the hearts of 
men from their fellows. Nor did their 
intense conviction of a life to come 
lessen their sense of duty in their pres- 


70 


THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 


ent life. Nor did the anticipation of a 
future world make them indifferent to 
the world in which they lived. Indeed 
this faith gave them the courage for 
the colossal task of changing the ex- 
isting social order and its political or- 
ganizations, and bringing men into the 
new Kingdom of God, which was to be 
fulfilled on the earth. This faith gen- 
erated a great power, and a burning 
zeal, which did not hesitate in the pres- 
ence of any task which was conceived 
as duty. 

Three significant phrases are used by 
Paul: “The kingdom of God is not in 
word but in power”; “The fashion of 
this world passeth away”; and “Our 
citizenship is in heaven, whence also 
we look for a Saviour.” ‘The world 
was to be transformed, and the bearers 
of the message of the gospel of Christ 

71 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 





had the moral responsibility of giving 
themselves as the implements for this 
work. How far this is from a sense of 
dissociation from life, and detachment 
from duty! 

The conviction of immortality lifted 
life by the power of new moral incen- 
tives. Conversely these moral incen- 
tives intensified the conviction of im- 
mortality. The eternal world made its 
demands upon these men, by the very 
stern voice of duty. But the fulfil- 
ment of duty gave a moral worth to 
life which carried the conviction that 
their life should be, and therefore was, 
imperishable. 

Wherever men endured hardship 
with high courage and a great cheer, 
for their loyalty to the living Christ, 
other men became convinced of the 
reality of immortal life. Their con- 

72 


THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 


duct became an argument for their 
faith. Men saw the power of their 
moral incentives and said, “This kind 
of life cannot perish.” When a mar- 
tyr was chained to the stake and en- 
dured the flames, for his Master’s sake, 
there were those who saw and were not 
terrified. Rather were they impelled 
to accept the same discipleship and en- 
dure, if need be, the same tortures. 
This kind of conviction has, indeed, 
done its work down through the Chris- 
tian centuries. Men have heeded the 
command of the living Christ, “Go into 
all the world and preach the gospel.” 
In their obedience they have endured 
measureless hardship and untold suf- 
fering. Going to men of many races, 
there have been those who have be- 
lieved the gospel because of the mes- 
sage; but there have been those also 


73 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


who have been convinced of the truth of 
the message by the fortitude of its 
bearers. Not so much by their words 
as by the evidence of power in their 
lives have these new converts been won. 
Such heroism is, itself, immortal. 

The courage, the fortitude, the faith 
that men have shown in their service to 
humanity have been a powerful incen- 
tive to confidence in life everlasting. 
Such qualities are, themselves, death- 
less, and men turn with confidence to 
the future believing that what deserves 
to live shall live eternally. Every no- 
ble life leaves the fiber of itself woven 
into the fabric of the world. ‘The kind 
of world we live in will not let integ- 
rity perish. ‘The man who throws him- 
self into the doing of his whole duty, 
letting himself be carried by the full 
force of moral and spiritual convic- 


74 


THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 


tions, is likely to be carried far by the 
very momentum of that movement,— 
to be carried, indeed, past all fear of 
death. Such is the evidence from the 
early years of Christianity; and this is 
confirmed in our own experience. 

This faith of the apostles had, of 
course, its difficulties to be overcome; 
arising principally from the material- 
ism and cynicism of the age. ‘The tes- 
timony of the senses to the presence of 
the material world always spreads a 
veil of obscurity over the reality of the 
spiritual world. Yet Jesus showed 
men the way into a direct relationship 
with that spiritual and eternal world. 
“God is spirit” was one of his brief in- 
tense statements. And again he said, 
“The words that I have spoken unto 
you are spirit and are life.’ This di- 
rect relationship to God, the secret of 

75 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


which he revealed to men, was the 
glowing center of the immortal life. 
“This is life eternal that they might 
know thee, the only true God, and Je- 
sus Christ whom thou hast sent’ was 
one of his last utterances. 

A reading of the gospels and the 
epistles, with this thought in mind, will 
convey the impression of the essential 
similarity of the spiritual experiences 
of Jesus and Paul. Jesus finds a sus- 
taining strength which comes from his 
times of solitude when he enters into 
mystical communion with the unseen 
Being, whom he calls Father. Paul 
explains the power of his own life by 
relating it to an unseen Being, for 
whom he uses the name Christ. One 
of his most significant statements is 
this, “It is no longer I that live, but 
Christ liveth in me: and that life which 

76 


THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 


I now live in the flesh I live in faith, 
the faith which is in the Son of God, 
who loved me, and gave himself up for 
me.’ ‘That mystical life possessed his 
whole being. Again he says, “To me, 
to live is Christ.” 

To Paul there was no contradiction 
in the experience of his Master and of 
himself regarding the object of their 
devotion, the unseen Being with which 
they were in mystical relationship. 
To the disciples in Colossae he wrote, 
“Your life is hid with Christ in God.” 
He bids them pray, “That God may 
open unto us a door for the word, to 
speak the mystery of Christ.” That 
there was a mystery about the im- 
mortal life, and about the relationship 
of living men with the source of spirit- 
ual power, was not, for him, a reason 
for skepticism. 


V7 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


Yet the minds of other men found 
a serious barrier to faith in the prob- 
lem of the body as an implement of a 
living being, for they could conceive no 
real dynamic life apart from a physical 
body. When the apostles declared 
their faith in the immortality of hu- 
man spirits, men asked (even as they 
do today), ‘““With what body do they 
come?” And Paul meets this with his 
vivid figure of the wheat. His answer 
is essentially this: “Foolish one! Even 
in your wheat field, when the life of the 
wheat grows anew, it does not restore 
the body of the seed which you sowed. 
That life within the seed is a creative 
life. ‘The seed you sowed perished. 
But that creative life builds for itself a 
new body, according to its need in the 
new life.” This faith relates itself di- 
rectly to the confidence, which the gos- 

78 


THE SPIRIT AND ITS IMPLEMENT 


pel of Jesus Christ taught men to hold, 
that they had discovered an eternal 
world as a present reality, and had estab- 
lished a vital relationship with it, so that 
the present material and visible life be- 
came a thing of secondary significance, 
while the power of that immortal life 
became the primary thing in living. 
This problem of the body as an ef- 
fective implement for the spirit, if the 
spirit is to live a dynamic life, disturbed 
the minds of some of those who heard 
the stories of the reappearances of the 
immortal spirit of Jesus Christ. A dis- 
embodied spirit seemed to them a mere 
wraith, a mere shadow of personality. 
On the other hand, the resuscitation of a 
physical body, ponderable and earthly, 
seemed an imprisonment rather than an 
emancipation of the deathless soul. 
They had difficulty in grasping the 
79 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


thought of a spiritual immortality; of a 
dynamic spirit perfectly self-reliant; of 
a spirit that could not die and that, in 
the eternal world, was emancipated 
from all that is “of the earth, earthy.” 

Very wistfully men asked the ques- 
tion, “If a man die shall he live again?” 
If death meant that the whole of hu- 
man personality perished, even for the 
time, there would be difficulties well- 
nigh insurmountable in the way of faith 
in another life. But the faith of the 
gospel was that the spirit is itself im- 
mortal and “shall not see death.” 
Spirit builds the body, not body the 
spirit. In the course of a normal hu- 
man life, the spirit builds and rebuilds 
the body many times. The immortal 
faith says that it can be trusted to 
create for itself whatever implement it 
needs in the eternal world. 

80 . 


CHAPTER V 


THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 


HE first Christian centuries were 
a time of radiant light, of buoy- 
ant faith, of vibrant life. ‘Then this 
unearthly glory passed, like the color 
of a wondrous sunrise fading into the 
common light of day,—and a gray day 
with the threat of storm. Was it nec- 
essary for that light to fade and for 
the glory to depart? It was not because 
persecutions became unbearable, dis- 
couragements many, and numbers few. 
The church was not, indeed, extermi- 
nated, though its enemies had aimed at 
that. 
On the contrary, the church had num- 
81 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


bers, and influence and growing wealth. 
It had survived its persecutors. It 
had begun to build for itself a kingdom. 

With the obstacles gone from its 
path, why did its progress halt? With 
its numbers not constantly decimated 
by martyrdom, but instead increasing 
easily, why did the light of its faith 
fade? With more of wealth with which 
to work, why did courage and conse- 
cration abate? 

One reason is that men began to 
make the realities of the Christian life 
the material for logic, for argument, 
for debate and for strife. Christian- 
ity was, in its first years, called, “The 
Way.” It was not proved argumenta- 
tively, nor defined with precision. It 
was lived, and the joy of living that life 
was contagious. It spread from heart 
to heart by the power of its own vital- 

82 


THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 


ity. It was a mystic experience in 
men’s souls, a power from unseen 
sources, a conviction for which men 
gladly gave even their physical life. 
When the endeavor was made to state 
it logically, it eluded statement; and 
when it became the subject of contro- 
versy the life itself was stifled. 

At the first, the religion of Jesus was 
a religion of youth. Instead of the 
problem of taking the religion of the 
minds of the old and adapting it to the 
young, the religion of Jesus had the 
ardor, the joy, the spirit of adventure 
which won an increasing number of 
young men, ready for any service to 
which it might call. 

But in its progress, Christianity en-. 
countered the Greek mind which de- 
lighted in making philosophies of all 
that came within its reach. The simple 

83 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


question, “Are you of the Way?” had 
been the test of the new faith. ‘This 
was changed, and men were asked to 
state, to define, to argue about and to 
defend their philosophy of religion. 
This is largely the interest of older 
minds. Sedate, logical, methodical old 
men gave this mystic life a series of 
definitions; and failed to see that the 
life itself was gone. 

In its further progress, Christianity 
encountered the Roman mind with its 
genius for legalism and organization. 
The Roman was trained in the task of 
repressing subject people, and of col- 
lecting revenue from them. Christian- 
ity began to do the same things: to 
build a system of laws, to give authority 
to organizations, to become thirsty for 
revenue. Restriction took the place of 
inspiration, and a new legalism was 

84 


THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 


built up that was as repressive as that 
against which Jesus himself had pro- 
tested. Obedience to the authority 
of organization, and conformity to its 
regulations, took the place of the spon- 
taneous life which Jesus lived and 
taught; and the light and joy and ardor 
faded. Again, this legalistic work 
was done by older minds; and the 
spirit of youth, with its idealism, dis- 
appeared. | 

This change from poetry to prose, 
from joyous life to formalism was so 
pronounced, that it is difficult even to 
picture the glowing light, the ardent 
fervor of the first years of the Christian 
faith, It has sometimes been de- 
scribed as a mere passing beauty, like 
the brief color in the east on the morn- 
ing of a gray day. ‘But in reality it is 
of the very genius of the religion of 

85 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


Jesus to have that joy, that light, that 
sense of sustaining power, that ardent 
faith in life immortal. 

Men ask very wistfully whether it be 
possible to restore it; or if it faded in 
those early years, never to return. The 
answer is that it never wholly faded, 
and that it can be restored. The land- 
scape of Christianity, with its rational- 
ism, its legalism, its formalism and its 
restrictions, became harsh and gray; 
but in every generation, throughout the 
Christian centuries, there have been 
those who have kept the undying fire, 
whose hearts have been warmed by it, 
whose eyes have seen the heavenly 
radiance, and who have transmitted 
that mystical life to those who followed 
in their steps. 

Down the highways of Christian his- 
tory have come its theologians, its phil- 

| 86 


THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 


osophers, its law-givers, its organizers, 
and its generals with their marching 
armies. To the eyes of the world, this 
is Christianity. But there are lines of 
travel, all through the centuries, that 
have not followed these highways with 
their pomp and their show of worldly 
power. ‘There is a tradition of free- 
dom, of originality, of spontaneous life, 
of direct personal experience, which has 
never been lost. The flame of mystical 
experience has never been allowed to 
die out. Its radiance, kept in secret 
places, has been an unfading reality. 
Christianity still has the hot blood of 
youth coursing within its veins. The 
inner life is immortal. 

One of the serious checks upon the 
mystical life has been controversy over 
the object of man’s devotion. Who is 
the unseen Comrade with which the 

87 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


mystic walks the path of his life? The 
endeavor to answer this question, and 
the arguments concerning it, have often 
inhibited the vital experience of the 
Christian life. Men try to define the 
indefinable and may be unconscious 
that they have shut out the glowing 
reality of spiritual experience. 

Jesus went into solitude for spiritual 
experience, and to renew his power for 
human service. He called the object 
of his devotion, and the source of this 
power by the name, Father. Paul 
had like experiences of communion and 
of sustaining strength. He said, “I 
can do all things through ‘Christ which 
strengtheneth me.” Evidently the un- 
seen Comrade is not exacting regarding 
the name by which he shall be called. 
Yet when controversy rages around the 
endeavor to give exact definitions to 

88 


THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 








divine power, men close for themselves 
the channels through which that power 
comes. When argument waxes loud, 
the Still Small Voice is silenced. The 
logical faculty closes the door which 
leads to the mystic Way. 

No one can explain fully the power 
that lifts the tides of the sea. Yet men 
use that reinforcing power: they make 
an ally of the lift of the tide. There 
are three impulses in the tide; a lift 
and then a pause, another lift and a 
second pause, then a third lift. The 
momentum of the whirl of the earth, 
the gravitation of the sun and of the 
moon, are elements in this power which 
lifts the tides. We cannot separate 
these influences, nor give to each its 
definition. But meantime we can use 
this power in the great deep. To en- 
gage in controversy over the source of 

89 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


this power and leave our boats upon 
the shore, would be folly indeed. 

The unseen Presence is indefinable. 
But Christian experience through the 
ages has found its reality. Imagine 
that this earth had an unbroken en- 
velope of cloud. We could not see the 
moon. Yet the tides would ebb and 
flow upon the shores of the sea. They 
would still be timed by the passing of 
that unseen heavenly body. Men would 
marvel that unseen hands beckoned to 
the waters and they rose and followed; 
that a voice unheard spoke to them and 
they obeyed with the utmost fidelity. 
Yet men would prepare their tide- 
tables, knowing that that lifting power, 
and the flow of the waters in response 
to it, were perfectly dependable. They 
would make an ally of the moon in its 
passing though they had no hint of its 

90 


THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 








existence save only this mysterious flow 
of the sea. 

The outermost planets of our solar 
system were discovered because visible 
planets responded to their influence 
when they passed. Men knew there 
must be a heavenly body, as yet unseen, 
which wielded this influence. Some- 
thing more than empty space must be 
out there beyond their normal vision. 
In the same way men would infer the 
passing of a heavenly body, such as the 
moon, even if this earth moved ever 
enveloped in mist, and the moon were © 
never seen. Men would not argue that 
as the moon was unseen, the tides were 
a delusion. ‘They would not leave their 
boats upon the bank arguing that other 
men merely imagined the tides. ‘That 
mysterious but perfectly dependable 
power would be used as an ally. 

91 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 





There is an unbroken continuity to 
mystical experience throughout the 
Christian centuries. The object of the 
mystic’s devotion is unseen, but the 
divine power is a great reality. The 
tides of the spiritual life have immeas- 
urable lifting power. Without defin- 
ing that power, without reducing its 
working to a rational statement, men 
can use and do use that sustaining 
strength. 

Watch the course of this vital reality 
in the Christian faith, and phenomena 
are seen which cannot be accounted for 
except by a measureless Power which 
moves through the skies of our life. 
The tides of the ‘Spirit are a reality. 
Something more than human power is in 
the tasks that are performed; something 
more than worldly wisdom is in its 
counsel; something more than human 

92 


THE LIFT OF THE TIDE 


stoicism in its endurance of pain; 
something more than the happiness of 
the outer world in its radiant joy. 

Sometimes this divine Power has 
manifested itself in great revivals of 
spiritual religion, in spite of the world- 
liness of the more formal elements of 
Christianity. Sometimes it uses im- 
plements which seem utterly inade- 
quate or altogether hopeless. ‘The 
material world and the animalism of 
man can account for Jerry McAuley in 
the gutter. But only superhuman 
Power can account for Jerry McAuley 
sobered, cleansed, spiritually renewed, 
and used as a mighty influence for the 
redemption of a multitude of other men 
from their sins. 

He is not a solitary instance. The 
pathway of the mystical form of Chris- 
tianity is marked by men whose lives 

93 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


are monuments to this divine Power. 
Above the mists that limit our vision 
there is a Being who is eternally con- 
cerned for the welfare of men, and 
whose passing lifts human lives, even 
from depths of degradation, to higher 
levels. We may see the working of 
that lifting Power and may know 
thereby the nearness of the Source of it. 


94 


CHAPTER VI 
THE UNFAILING COMRADE 


HE era in which we live is 
marked by great advances in 
material knowledge. Observation has 
been developed to the utmost capacity 
of human organs of sense. Reason has 
been trained to the highest degree of 
precision. Invention has attained re- 
sults that surpass men’s dreams and im- 
agination. 

The inevitable consequence is a great 
confidence in the things of the material 
world, and a great activity in acquiring 
them. ‘To be guided by the senses, and 
satisfied with the results, is characteris- 
tic of the lives of thousands of people. 

95 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


The spiritual life has new and novel 
obstacles. There is a materialism 
which may be defined as the confidence 
that the realities of this world are those 
perceived by the physical senses. 
There is a rationalism which may be 
defined as a complete trust in logic as 
the mental operation which will lead to 
truth. Materialism and_ rationalism 
shut out the world of spiritual expe- 
rience and deny the validity of that 
experience. 

But a great scientist of our own time 
has said that only a part of this world 
consents to record itself on our physical 
perceptions; that only a limited part of 
truth flows in the forms and patterns of 
reason; and that man’s real life rests 
on unseen foundations. This is the 
confession that science is limited in its 
field and in its methods. He has de- 

96 


THE UNFAILING COMRADE 


clared that faith leads men to the abid- 
ing realities by which they live the 
higher life. 

The endeavor has been made in some 
quarters, indeed, is still made, to apply 
“scientific methods” to the spiritual 
world and to make an analysis of reli- 
gious experience by rational processes. 
But the realities of the spiritual world 
transcend such research, and religious 
experience defies analysis. The botan- 
ist, excellent as is his work, leaves be- 
hind him a trail of dead flowers which 
he has picked to pieces in his analytical 
work. The gardener, with his water- 
ing pot and his hoe, leaves more flowers 
beside his path. The mystic is not 
analytical. But his experience and his 
faith are vital. The religious needs of 
the world today are better served by 
those who cultivate the flowers of the 

97 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


spiritual life than by those who make an 
analysis of those blossoms, and who fail 
to record their aroma and their beauty. 

An immigrant, coming to America, 
wandered over this new land for a long 
time before gaining a foothold. Fi- 
nally he bought, for very little, a tract 
of dry unproductive land. It lay be- 
tween the mountains and the sea, and 
this man had made a discovery. The 
streams which came down the sunlit 
sides of the mountains lost themselves 
in the loose soil of this gently sloping 
tract, and the waters percolated slowly 
through it, on their way toward the sea. 
The surface of the tract was dry, but 
there was an abundance of warmth and 
moisture beneath the surface. He 
planted vines deeply, and soon he had 
completely transformed that tract of 
land. 

98 


THE UNFAILING COMRADE 


Searching far and wide over the sur- 
face of that land would not have made 
the great discovery. Drawing the 
geometric figures of a surveyor would 
not have changed it. What was needed 
was a digger; and when he came he had 
not far to go to make the vital discovery. 

Our modern life stands in direct re- 
lationships with the majestic spiritual 
realities; but its surface is dry and un- 
productive of joy and peace and faith. 
The materialism which stirs the surface 
dust, and the rationalism which draws 
geometric figures on its surface, declare 
that they are gaining an understanding 
of the whole area. But they leave us in 
the dust. 

Spiritual experience goes beneath 
the surface, and has not far to go to 
make the infinitely precious discovery 
of life-sustaining powers. If we send 

99 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


the roots of our being into the deep soil 
they shall be nourished from secret 
streams of life. 

Men are still arguing about the na- 
ture of the Being who responds to man’s 
spiritual aspirations. And the argu- 
ment inhibits spiritual experience. 
There is need of the adventure of faith 
which is willing to test the reality of 
this experience, and to receive the 
sustaining Power which waits for 
the opportunity to work man’s re- 
demption. 

Men argue about, and seek to make 
distinctions among, the divine Father, 
the Christ of the mystic, and the Jesus 
who lived in Palestine. If the mystic 
declares that his Christ is identical with 
the immortal Spirit which the disciples 
recognized as their’ Master, someone 
asks to be shown the marks of identifi- 

100 


THE UNFAILING COMRADE 


cation. And when someone else seeks 
to draw a line between what is done for 
man by the love of the Father and what 
is done by the influence of Jesus Christ, 
someone else declares them to be 
indistinguishable. 

Meantime the poets seem to approach 
the heart of the reality of spiritual ex- 
perience with surer tread than do the 
theologians. Affirmation reaches some 
goals which are missed by logic. In 
some journeys we have to let expe- 
rience take the lamp and be the guide. 
Whittier says: 


The healing of his seamless dress 
Is by our beds of pain: 
We touch him jn life’s throng and press, 


And we are whole again. 


This is the expression of mystical expe- 
rience, the reality of knowing that we 
101 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


are in relationship with an unseen 
Comrade. 

The further we go, in our modern 
progress, in a knowledge of the uni- 
verse, the more majestic is our thought 
of the Creator. And as that thought 
grows in majesty, there is a deeper 
sense of contrast between it and the 
sense of nearness, of intimacy, of ten- 
derness of the Christ of the mystic. 

We apply majestic terms to God the 
Father, who is the Creator of the 
worlds. He is eternal, almighty, in- 
finite. But how are these universal 
qualities to be blended with the sense of 
a comradeship with One who shares 
our experiences and understands our 
simplest needs? 

We derive the thought of eternity 
and of infinity from meditation. We 
gain the feeling of intimacy and sym- 

102 


THE UNFAILING COMRADE 


pathy from mystical experience. We 
experience God only in the nearer 
phases of his Being. We do not ex- 
perience infinity. We will not know, 
by experience, eternity except by the 
continuity of our own immortal life. 
But spiritual experience does lead to 
adoration, to worship, to a sense of es- 
tablishing a relationship with a Power 
which has measureless resources. 
Spiritual experience gives a great 
chorus of testimony to the reality of a 
Being who is near, sympathetic, power- 
ful, and wise; a Being who responds to 
our call, who helps in our weakness, and 
who guides in time of need. And who- 
ever, with open mind, and with under- 
standing heart, has seen a human life 
visibly sustained by a Power more than 
human, a Power unseen but ever real, 
knows that our life is more than what 
103 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


the eyes see, and the world is more than 
what the hands handle. 

We do deal with mystery; and reascn 
cannot give exact definitions to expe- 
riences and to the Source of them. 
But the mystery invites us to a great 
spiritual adventure. Reason has no 
right to make us halt in that adventure. 
The greatest need of the world today, 
of our modern life, is the sense of a vital 
relationship with the things that are 
eternal, the consciousness of living the 
life which is immortal. 

Can the radiance of the first Chris- 
tian years be restored? Yes, for the 
light which has sometimes burned low 
has never been quenched. We still 
live in the kind of world which Jesus 
interpreted to men. The _ physical 
world but thinly veils the glory of God; 
and that glory sometimes breaks 

104 


THE UNFAILING COMRADE 


through. In the flowers of the field, in 
the faces of children, in the order and 
beauty of the world, he is visible for 
those who have “eyes to see.” 

‘Still do prayer and meditation yield 
the results which Jesus found when he 
“rose a great while before day, and de- 
parted into the mountain to pray.” 
The shepherds of Israel, in far-off 
times, watching by night the stars and 
guarding their flocks, learned the way 
into the mystical experience of the 
Eternal. They learned that there is a 
Voice which speaks in silence, a Pres- 
ence that makes itself known in the 
quiet of the heart. They did not make 
a theology of it, but they did set it to 
music. And the joyousness which 
flows in music, and in poetry, is a 
better expression of the inner spirit of 
the religion of Jesus than are the logi- 

105 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


cal explanations which do not explain, 
and the. philosophical forms in which 
the spiritual life refuses to flow. 

Human life has still the promise and 
the possibilities which Jesus found in it. 
Into man’s personality the power of the 
Infinite is waiting to flow, if he will 
make himself a channel for service to 
humanity. Still do we need inspira- 
tion rather than repression; still does 
humanity possess a capacity for origi- 
nality, for spiritual initiative, for re- 
sourcefulness and for unmeasured 
growth. It was the spiritual expe- 
rience of a man of our own times that 
led to the writing of these lines: 


O Master, let me walk with thee 

In lowly paths of service free; 

Tell me thy secret ; help me bear 

The strain of toil, the fret of care. ... 


106 


THE UNFAILING COMRADE 


Teach me thy patience. Still with thee, 
In closer, dearer company, 
In work that keeps faith sweet and strong, 


In trust that triumphs over wrong; 


In hope that sends a shining ray 

Far down the future’s broadening way ; 
In peace that only thou canst give, 
With thee, O Master, let me live! 


In such experience, Christ does not 
become a fading memory from the 
ancient world, nor a mere tradition 
from an ever-receding past. The gap 
between his life and ours does not 
widen with the years. His story is not 
simply an oft-told tale from a far-off 
land. Spiritual experience bridges the 
gap of time and space; for that expe- 
rience is timeless. There is an impres- 
sive continuity about it, through the 
ages. Life is lifted out of its narrow- 

107 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


ing horizons and gains eternal meaning. 

There are men today who are willing 
to acknowledge that there is a wisdom 
in Christ’s teaching, a shrewdness in his 
answers to his critics, a value in his 
principles of conduct, but who have 
never flung themselves into a loyalty 
to the unseen Leader, and do not know 
the secret joys of an undivided heart. 
Indeed the rationalism of today dis- 
sects the motives of idealism, and thus 
destroys them. 

There are lines along which knowl- 
edge is advancing very slowly from 
generation to generation and from age 
to age; and concerning which we need 
feel no deep concern, no consuming 
ardor. For example, the unsolved 
problems of mathematics and the mean- 
ing of the spiral nebulae are not of the 
most vital importance for us. But, on 

108 


THE UNFAILING COMRADE 


the other hand, the results of spiritual 
experience are of prime importance. 
While we are living we either get or fail 
to get the essential meaning of our life. 

The realities of the spiritual world 
are outside of our sense perceptions. 
They escape the crucible and the test 
tube; they transcend the measuring 
rod and the scales. But they respond 
with light and with power to the test 
of spiritual experience. ‘The way for a 
man to make the test is to fling himself 
whole into the life which religion im- 
plies. This is done not by rationalistic 
processes but by the will; by a whole- 
hearted loyalty to duty, and a complete 
consecration to the Eternal. 

Any theory of the world, any inter- 
pretation of life, may be tested by ask- 
ing what incentives it gives for living, 
by inquiring what kind of motives 

109 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


would really express it. The Chris- 
tian faith tells us that the real world is 
eternal, and offers immortality unto 
men. Men take, toward this declar- 
ation, the attitude of agnosticism or of 
faith. But what is the effect of this 
choice upon men’s vital motives? 

The position of agnosticism may be 
rationally defended: point by point it 
may make its argument with no break 
in the logical chain. But what incen- 
tives to conduct, what motives for life, 
does it offer? It advises caution; jus- 
tifies timidity; bids one hesitate. It mn- 
spires no master-motives, no coura- 
geous adventures, no magnificent dar- 
ing. It says there is nothing worth 
dying for; and it doubts if there be any- 
thing worth living for. It produces no 
great leaders, and bestows no inspiring 
visions. It is neutral in its colors and 

110 


THE UNFAILING COMRADE 


lukewarm in its affections. It asks, 
“Will it pay?’ And when the ardent 
heart of youth is readv for a great con- 
secration, agnosticism chills his heart 
by asking, “What’s the use?” 

May faith be rationally defended? 
That is not the highest test. Rather 
ask, “What motives does it supply? 
What impulses does it inspire?” Faith 
in immortality is its own highest jus- 
tification. ‘Tested by the incentives it 
furnishes toward clean living, that faith 
stands secure. Ask, ““What conduct 
is in keeping with it?” The answer is 
that it justifies integrity and truth and 
honor. Faith is the mother of chivalry, 
of splendid daring, of complete loyalty 
to a cause. It is far-sighted, and is 
willing to devote itself to ends that lie 
far beyond the span of a single life- 
time. It puts a high value on the 

111 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


powers of human personality. It dares 
to trust the sustaining power of God. 
It does not ask, in advance of service 
rendered, that there be guarantees of 
economic profit. It justifies ideals 
and aspirations and hopes and prayers. 

Jesus set before the eyes of men a 
picture of a better world, which would 
come by transforming the existing 
world. ‘To this picture, this vision, 
this dream, he gave the name, the 
Kingdom of God. When men asked 
him for a prayer, he gave them a very 
brief one: but among its few petitions 
was one for the coming of this King- 
dom. Why should men believe that it 
will come? Why pray for it? Why 
labor and, if need be, die for it? How 
can any one prove to men that they 
ought to cherish this age-long hope for 
the new Kingdom? 

112 


THE UNFAILING COMRADE 


If for no other reason we should 
cherish that hope because it is associated 
with all the greatest incentives in life; 
with all the most buoyant hopes of the 
human heart; with all the noblest mo- 
tives of the human will; with all of our 
most ardent ideals. The doubt of it is 
linked with our times of depression. 
Selfishness bids us withhold our service 
from it. Cynicism questions the worth 
of it. Strife and jealousy are out of 
harmony with it. Agnosticism says it 
is not worth while. Thus the doubt of 
it is discredited because of the kind of 
motives to which it prompts; and faith 
in it is justified by the inspiration which 
it brings. 

Even so with faith in immortality: 
depression and doubt and cynicism bid 
us hesitate to trust its promptings; but 
all things that make joy and affirma- 

113 


THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 


tion and chivalry link themselves with 
it. Doubt stands in weakness, not dar- 
ing to trust the resources of the unseen. 
Faith walks in power, confident that its 
path is imperishable and that the sus- 
taining strength of the Eternal cannot 
fail. Immortality begins as a quality 
of the life that now is, giving it moral 
worth and spiritual meaning. It gains 
assurance from the power which comes 
into human life from invisible sources. 
It illuminates the landscape of life with 
an unfading radiance. The hills shall 
dissolve, but the eternal light shall con- 
tinue, 


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